Murray reflects after reaching landmark

Skipper/assistant manager Adam Murray is determined to help us through our sticky patch and get back to winning ways, having racked up his 200th appearance for the club in our Johnstone's Paint Trophy First Round defeat at Notts County in midweek.

Murray, who celebrates his 33rd birthday later this month, first joined us on loan from Derby County in 2002, and says he has always felt a connection with Mansfield.

“I've had some experiences here," commented Murray. "It’s been eventful and it’s nice to hit milestones like that in your career. I've got a good connection with this football club and to keep moving forward is a nice feeling.”

“Ever since the first time I came here on loan I've always had a connection with the club and I've always seemed to get on with people. I've made some good friends, some good enemies, and I've enjoyed it. I’ve always felt at home here and I think we keep continuing to move the football club forward."

Over the years, the 32-year-old has had to change his style of play, but he says he is still enjoying his football: “I've obviously had to change my playing style. As you get older you have to play a bit more with your head, because you can’t do what you want to do physically, as much. I've kept myself in good shape and I'm still enjoying it.”

Now in this third spell with the club, after a short stint in the 2004/05 campaign, Murray has had his 'ups and downs' with us, but the positives have outweighed the negatives.

He continued: “I think if everything was good or everything was bad then it’d be boring. I think you have to experience the 'ups and downs' and I like to think I've had more ups here. We’ve had two promotions, been to Wembley and had a good first season back in the Football League.

“I think that season [2012/13 when we won the Conference Premier] I put a lot in to it in all areas to lift that trophy. It was a massive relief and also gave me an immense feeling of pride and fulfilment, so that’s the highlight so far."

Turning his thoughts to this season, the evergreen midfielder says the players are going to have to work hard to get themselves out of the rut they currently find themselves in.

“We haven’t got time to start feeling sorry for ourselves or get down with the situation, we've get on with it and at the end of the day, there are three points to be put on the board Saturday,” added Murray.

“If you get too down in the bad moments and too high in the good moments then you’re all over the place and you become erratic. I've learned, not only at this place but throughout my career, to stay focussed on what the end goal is.

“People are always going to have a negative outlook when you’re losing football matches and that’s fair enough. We know that we haven’t been good enough in the last few games and there’s no excuses for that, we need to put that right.

“I'm not overly worried, we’ve been here before and there’s only the people out on the pitch and the people in the office that can put that right and we’re more determined than ever to do that."